Duke Energy and Progress Energy have given federal regulators additional information on their most recent proposal to protect wholesale competition in the Carolinas after their proposed $26 billion merger.

“The merger has been tough,” Duke Chief Executive Jim Rogers acknowledged Friday several hours before the companies made their latest filing in the proceedings before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

“We’re trapped between federal and state policy,” he said at the Hood Hargett Breakfast Club at Carmel Country Club in Charlotte. “It’s been 15 months of ... working to get this across the goal line.”

Now Duke and Progress are trying to get a positive ruling out of FERC by June 8 so they will have time to get approval from state utility regulators in both Carolinas before the merger agreement expires in July.

Firm sales and new transmission

A request Monday from FERC for additional information on the companies' latest proposed solution has raised questions about whether approval is likely on that time line.

The questions came on what amounts to Duke and Progress’ third attempt to demonstrate to FERC that the merger will not throttle wholesale competition. The current proposal from the companies involves contracts to sell specified capacity amounts to a group of three marketers that can resell it wherever they want. That takes significant power sales completely out of their hands, they say, and renders the companies incapable of dominating markets.

They also propose building $110 million worth of improvements to transmission lines and systems to make it easier for outside competitors to sell into the Carolinas' wholesale markets.

Third swing

The commission responded Monday that the filing did not have all the information needed to allow FERC to evaluate the proposal. The power companies’ response, like FERC’s request, involves highly technical issues. But they amount to metrics for determining how much competition will remain in the Carolinas markets after the merger.

In some cases, Duke and Progress say the information requested was already provided, and they spell out where in the proposal the information can be found. In some instances, the companies did additional studies or recalculated reports to provide new information to FERC.

Before the filing, Rogers said he was still optimistic that the merger could be approved but that nothing is certain.

“They’ve said no twice,” he noted ruefully. “Either its ‘third time is the charm’ or ‘it’s three strikes and your out.’ ”